Eye covers

ABSTRACT

An eye cover for use as sunglasses, eye shields, eye glasses or other eye wear, is formed of an elongated and flexible sheet of transparent plastic material adapted to extend horizontally over both eyes and temples of a wearer, to a location forward of the ears of the wearer. The sheet has a central nose engaging area, a pair of viewing areas on opposite sides of the nose engaging area and a pair of temple engaging areas each extending from one of the viewing areas. Each of the temple areas have inner surfaces and are bent for use into an arcuate position with the inner surfaces engaging the temples of a wearer. A bend retaining mechanism, such as wires connected to the perimeter of the sheet, form and resiliently maintain the arcuate position of each of temple area.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of eye wear, and,in particular, to a new and useful, light weight eye covers with no earengaging temples, which can be used as sunglasses, eye shields,eyeglasses or the like.

Conventional eye wear utilizes either a frame or frameless structurethat includes means for suspending transparent viewing areas in front ofthe eyes of the wearer. This part of the eye wear is usually supportedon the bridge of the nose. Conventional eye wear also includes sidepieces commonly referred to as “temples” which are designed to extendalong the side of the face and over the ears.

Alternate approaches for supporting eye wear on the head of a userinclude bands and cords which extend entirely around the user's head.

Several attempts have also been made to provide eye wear with notemples. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,562,319 to Fairall whichdiscloses simplified eye wear made of a pair of slidably engaged plasticsheets having side portions that can be bent to engage the wearer'stemple, forward of the wearer's ears.

The eye wear is, thus, made lightweight and engages the temples atrelatively sharp ridges. The eye wear is held to the head by frictionbetween the sharp ridge and the temples of the wearer.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,909 to Spain also discloses temple-less eye wear.Side pieces engage the temples of the wearer by friction. The frame ispermanently formed into a U-shape for this purpose.

Another approach to temple-less eye wear is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.4,837,862 to Heil. In this case, suction cups or adhesive tapes are usedto engage the temples of the wearer, forward of the wearer's ears, tohold the viewing areas of the eye wear in front of the eyes of the user.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,655 to Paschel, et al discloses temple-less eye wearusing magnets to engage adhesively attached magnets or magneticallyattractable areas at the temples of the user. Also see U.S. Pat. No.715,533 to Anderson (1902) and U.S. Pat. No. 714,664 to Briggs (1902)for eye wear having temple engaging structures.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,349 to Willis, discloses temple-less eye wear havingcushions for frictionally engaging the wearer's temples to hold the eyewear to the wearer's head.

A simplified light weight eye wear structure is also disclosed by U.S.Pat. No. 3,614,216 to Rosenthal. A sheet of resilient flexible plasticthat includes viewing areas is preformed into a curled shape. Even whenuncurled, the material of the sheet has “memory” and tries to return toits curled state. By using this attribute, a wearer uncurls thespecially shaped sheet of material and then engages it to his or herhead. The sides of the sheet material, which is constantly trying toreturn to its curled state, closely engages the temple areas of thewearer, forward of the ears, and thus, holds the eye wear to thewearer's head. This structure, however, applies continuous firm pressureto the temples of the wearer. This pressure, as with the disclosure ofU.S. Pat. No. 1,562,319 to Fairall, is concentrated at a sharp ridge oredge against the sides of the head and may result in headaches.Certainly, long wear of this type of structure would be uncomfortable.Further, none of the known structures are made of material orincorporate means which allow bending of at least the temple areas intoa smooth arcuate shape, which shape is retained and sufficiently fixedto allow smooth flat surfaces to gently press against the surfaces ofthe wearer's temples, forward of the wearer's ears, to hold the eye wearwith its viewing areas in front of the wearer's eyes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide ultrasimple and ultra lightweight eye wear that can be used as a basis forsunglasses, eye shields and even eye glasses.

The sunglasses or more generally, the eye wear, or simply eye cover ofthe invention preferable comprises a single piece of flexibletransparent material which, when bent, retains its bent shape until andso far as it is bent and formed into another shape (whether flatter ormore curved).

The mechanism by which the eye cover achieves this quality ofbendability is not limited to one single mode of construction or type ofmaterial. That is, the invention applies to any and all products whichserve as eye wear having the property of “shape-to-fit” flexibility andmalleability.

One embodiment of the invention achieves this shape-to-fit capability bymeans of a wire attached to the perimeter region of the flexibletransparent material. It is also possible to use a material whichinherently possesses the property of shape memory and of shapereversibly, hence avoiding the need for a wire or similar flexible metalpiece.

For a construction utilizing wire, it is preferable, but not necessary,that the wire be embedded into the flexible transparent material itself.Furthermore, the wire need not run around the entire perimeter of theflexible transparent material. For example, a single piece of wireprovided along the top perimeter can achieve the desired effect, orthree different wire pieces can be incorporated—one running along thetop and two shorter wires running along the bottom right and left sidesof the invention.

The overall shape of a product made according to the invention is notrestricted to a single design or limited number of designs. That is, theproduct can be wider, narrower, longer and shorter, symmetrical orasymmetrical.

One non-limiting example of the form of the invention is oval andextends about two-thirds along the temple or side of the head to theear, and provides an allowance, e.g. a notch, in the shape for thebridge of the wearer's nose.

The basic distinctiveness of the invention is that it has the capacityto be bent from one shape (e.g. flat) to another shape (e.g. curved), toretain that shape, and then to be bent into another shape, all on itsown, without recourse to an extraneous structures such as a band(elastic or otherwise) attached to the ends and extending around thehead or conventional ear-supported “temples.”

Further distinctions of the invention resides in the fact that aheretofore unachieved level of comfort is made possible since a productof the invention can be shaped so as to apply the tension requisite forholding the product on the face, in a uniform manner along a maximumsurface of the sides, thus, any sort of localized pressure point on thenose, ears, etc., can be avoided.

Further distinctiveness resides in the fact that the product, havingeliminated the need for the side arm supports or conventional “temples”extending past the ears, is capable of being much more lightweight thanother eye wear.

Further advantage resides in the easy storing a product which isafforded to it by its bendability. Unlike other eye wear, the productcan be made to be flat so that it can be stored in a minimal thin space.

Accordingly, a further object of the invention is to provide an eyecover comprising: an elongated and flexible sheet of material adapted toextend horizontally over both eyes and temples of a wearer, to alocation forward of the ears of the wearer, the sheet having a centralnose engaging area, a pair of viewing areas on opposite sides of thenose engaging area, and a pair of temple engaging areas each extendingfrom one of the viewing areas, at least the viewing areas beingtransparent, each of the temple engaging areas having inner planarsurfaces and being bent for use by the wearer, into an arcuate positionwith the inner flat surfaces engaging the temples of the wearer at alocation forward of the ears of the wearer, each temple engaging areahaving a flat storage position lying in a common plane with the noseengaging area and viewing areas of the sheet; and bend retaining meanslocated at least at a perimeter of the temple engaging areas for beingbent to form and resiliently maintain the arcuate position of each ofthe temple engaging areas, and for being bent to form and maintain thestorage position of each temple engaging area.

It is noted that the smooth plastic inner surfaces of the templeengaging areas that flatly and gently press against the wearer'stemples, adhere slightly to the wearer's skin, due to the slightly moistcontent of skin and the tendency of smooth plastic to “stick” to theskin. This slight adhesion is enough to support the sides of the eyecover on the face due to the extremely light weight nature of theinventive eye cover. The center of the eye cover is supported on thebridge of the nose, whether a concave nose notch is provided or not.

The various features of novelty which characterize the invention arepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention,its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses,reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter inwhich a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an eye cover illustrating oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of a second embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of an eye cover of the invention, bent into aposition for use;

FIG. 4 is a partial, sectional view of an embodiment of the presentinvention showing one bend retaining mechanism therefore;

FIG. 5 is a partial, sectional view of another embodiment of the presentinvention showing a further bend retaining mechanism therefore;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 4 of a further embodiment for the bendretaining mechanism;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 4 of a still further embodiment for thebend retaining mechanism;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the eye cover of theinvention as it appears while being worn by a user of the invention; and

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the eye cover of theinvention as it is being put on by a user of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals are usedto refer to the same or similar elements, the invention embodied in FIG.1 comprises an eye cover generally designated 10, which can be tinted orprovided in a color to act as sunglasses, or be clear to act as eyeshields, or be provided with optical characteristics to form correctiveeye glasses.

The eye cover 10 advantageously comprises a single elongated andflexible sheet of material 11, adapted to extend horizontally over botheyes and temples of a wearer 20 in FIG. 8, to a location forward of theears of the wearer.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the sheet has a central nose engaging area 12,a pair of viewing areas 14 on opposite sides of the nose engaging area12, and a pair of temple engaging areas 16 each extending from one ofthe viewing areas 14. At least the viewing areas 14 are transparent,although in a preferred form of the invention, the entire sheet istransparent although all of the sheet may be in a dark color if the eyecover is to be used as sunglasses.

Each of the temple engaging areas 16 has an inner, preferably smoothplanar surface 16 a in FIG. 3, and is bent for use by the wearer, intoan arcuate position shown in FIG. 3, with the inner flat surfacesengaging the temples of the wearer at locations spaced forwardly of theears as shown in FIG. 8. Each temple engaging area 16 also has a flatstorage position shown in FIG. 1, lying in a common plane with the noseengaging area 12 and viewing areas 14, of the sheet.

Bend retaining means are located at least at a perimeter of the templeengaging areas for being bent to form and resiliently maintain thearcuate position of each of the temple engaging areas 16, and for beingbent to form and maintain the storage position of each temple engagingarea.

Although the eye cover is preferably a single sheet of transparentplastic material, the material can have one or more than one layer. Thebend retaining means comprises, for example, a reversibly bendable wire18, 22, intimately connected along at least part of the perimeter of theviewing areas 14 and the temple engaging areas 16. As shown in FIGS. 5and 7, the wire 18 may have a circular cross-section, or as shown inFIGS. 4 and 6, the wire 19 in these figures, may have a rectangularcross-section.

The intimate connection may be by embedding the wire or wires into thematerial thickness of the sheet material 11 (FIG. 4), or providing thewire(s) between two full area layers 13,13 of the sheet material of theeye cover (FIG. 5), or embedding the wire(s) in a bead of adhesive 15(FIG. 6), or sealing the wire(s) under a border of plastic material 21(FIG. 7), or in any other way is consistent with the other features ofthe invention.

The plastic material can be any one or more or of any suitablethermoplastic, for example, or other plastic suitable to the purpose ofthe invention.

Examples include: (i) a high or low density polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE),or (ii) a transparent and flexible plasticized polyvinyl chloride, or(iii) a cellulose acetate, or (iv) a clear and flexible polyamide, etc.

The plastic sheet material used for the invention should be in thethickness range of about 7 to 30 thousandths of an inch(˜0.007″–0.030″).

The wire 18, 19, 22, may be some variety of stainless steel alloy(containing various amounts of chromium, nickel, manganese and/orsilicon) or a variety of nickel titanium; or a copper alloy (e.g. silverplated), or a nickel-free titanium alloy (e.g. “BTA” Bendable TitaniumAlloy), or some variety of aluminum alloy. Understanding the principlesof the invention, the person of ordinary skill in this art can selectsuitable metal for the wire of the eye cover.

The bend retaining means of the eye cover of the invention may simply bethe plastic material itself if it can be reversibly bent to form theresilient arcuate curved positions of the temples as shown in FIG. 2.

As also shown in FIG. 3, the curve of the arcuate positions of thetemple engaging areas can extend into the viewing areas and even intothe nose engaging areas, to create a continuous and graceful arc forengaging the wearer's face as shown in FIG. 8.

As shown in FIG. 9, after having bent the eye cover into the arcuatepositions of FIG. 3 for the temple engaging areas, the wearer uses thehands to spread the eye cover slightly and places the temple engagingareas of her or his temples. By then releasing the eye cover, the innersurfaces of the temple engaging areas comes to rest against the wearsskin at the temples and is held there, gently to avoid pressure that maycause a headache, but securely due to the natural adhesion of smoothplastic to human skin.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, graphic layers 23 may be provided at least atone of the nose engaging, viewing and temple engaging areas. This can beby screen printing or other printing in the inner and/or outer surfacesof the sheet 11, or by embedding graphics between two layers 13,13making up the sheet, or by other means. The graphics may be of the typewhich is transparent to the wearer but at least partly opaque whenviewed from an outer surface of the eye cover. This can be done bymaking the graphic layer very thin or by providing a multitude ofclosely spaced perforations in the graphic layer. This will allow thewearer to see through the graphics even while the graphics seem to beopaque for the outside.

The eye cover 10 with its nose engaging, viewing and temple engagingareas, together form a smoothly curving generally oval perimeter shownin FIGS. 1 and 2. The bend retaining means comprised the reversiblybendable wire 18 intimately connected to the sheet 11 along a smoothlyconvexly curved upper portion of the perimeter of the sheet, and thelikewise reversibly bendable wires 20 are at the lower portions of theperimeter, spaced from a concave nose notch 25 in the nose engagingarea, which is present in the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2, to supportthe eye cover at the bridge of the wearer's nose, but is not essential.Other shapes are also possible for the sheet 11.

Because the eye cover of the invention is so light weight the templeengaging areas tend to stick to the skin of the wearer to support thetemple engaging areas and the sides of the eye cover, at the temples ofthe wearer.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown anddescribed in detail to illustrate the application of the principles ofthe invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodiedotherwise without departing from such principles.

1. An eye cover comprising: an elongated and flexible sheet of materialadapted to extend horizontally over both eyes and temples of a wearer,to a location forward of the ears of the wearer, the sheet having acentral nose engaging area, a pair of viewing areas on opposite sides ofthe nose engaging area, and a pair of temple engaging areas eachextending from one of the viewing areas, at least the viewing areasbeing transparent, each of the temple engaging areas having inner planarsurfaces and being bent for use by the wearer, into an arcuate positionwith the inner flat surfaces engaging the temples of the wearer at alocation forward of the ears of the wearer, each temple engaging areahaving a flat storage position lying in a common plane with the noseengaging area and viewing areas of the sheet; and bend retaining meanslocated at least at a perimeter of the temple engaging areas for beingbent to form and resiliently maintain the arcuate position of each ofthe temple engaging areas, and for being bent to form and maintain thestorage position of each temple engaging area.
 2. The eye cover of claim1, wherein the sheet of material is a single sheet of transparentplastic material, the bend retaining means comprising a reversiblybendable wire, intimately connected along at least part of the perimeterof the viewing areas and the temple engaging areas.
 3. The eye cover ofclaim 1, wherein the sheet of material is a single sheet of transparentplastic material, the bend retaining means comprising a reversiblybendable wire, intimately connected along at least part of the perimeterof the viewing areas and the temple engaging areas, and having acircular cross-section.
 4. The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the sheetof material is a single sheet of transparent plastic material, the bendretaining means comprising a reversibly bendable wire, intimatelyconnected along at least part of the perimeter of the viewing areas andthe temple engaging areas, and having a rectangular cross-section. 5.The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the sheet of material is a singlesheet of transparent plastic material, the bend retaining meanscomprising a reversibly bendable wire, intimately connected along atleast part of the perimeter of the viewing areas and the temple engagingareas; plastic material being at least one thermoplastic selected from:a high or low density poly ethylene; a transparent and flexibleplasticized polyvinyl chloride; a cellulose acetate; or a clear andflexible polyamide; and having a thickness of about 7 to 30 thousandthsof an inch; and the wire being made of at least one of: stainless steelalloy containing amounts of at least one of chromium, nickel, manganeseor silicon; nickel titanium; copper alloy; nickel-free titanium alloy;bendable titanium alloy; or aluminum alloy.
 6. The eye cover of claim 1,wherein the sheet of material is a single sheet of transparent plasticmaterial, the bend retaining means comprising the plastic material beingreversibly bendable material.
 7. The eye cover of claim 1, wherein thesheet of material is a single sheet of transparent plastic material, thebend retaining means comprising the plastic material being reversiblybendable material and being a thermoplastic.
 8. The eye cover of claim1, wherein the sheet of material is a single sheet of transparentplastic material having a graphics layer at least at one of the noseengaging, viewing and temple engaging areas.
 9. The eye cover of claim1, wherein the sheet of material is a single sheet of transparentplastic material having a graphics layer at least at one of the noseengaging, viewing and temple engaging areas which is transparent to thewearer but at least partly opaque when viewed from an outer surface ofthe eye cover.
 10. The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the nose engaging,the viewing and the temple engaging areas together form a smoothlycurving generally oval perimeter, the bend retaining means comprising areversibly bendable wire intimately connected to the sheet, at leastalong part of the perimeters of the temple engaging areas.
 11. The eyecover of claim 1, wherein the nose engaging, the viewing and the templeengaging areas together form a smoothly curving generally ovalperimeter, the bend retaining means comprising a reversibly bendablewire intimately connected to the sheet, at least along parts of upperand lower perimeters of the viewing areas and the temple engaging areas.12. The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the nose engaging, the viewing andthe temple engaging areas together form a smoothly curving generallyoval perimeter having a smoothly convexly curved upper portion and alower portion with a concave nose notch in the nose engaging area, thebend retaining means comprising reversibly bendable wires intimatelyconnected to the sheet and extending along the upper portion of the ovalperimeter and along the lower portion of the oval perimeter away fromthe nose notch.
 13. The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the nose engaging,the viewing and the temple engaging areas together form a smoothlycurving generally oval perimeter having a smoothly convexly curved upperportion and a lower portion with a concave nose notch in the noseengaging area, the bend retaining means comprising reversibly bendablewires intimately connected to the sheet and extending along the upperportion of the oval perimeter and along the lower portion of the ovalperimeter away from the nose notch, each temple engaging area having anouter convexly curved perimeter with no wire extending therealong. 14.The eye cover of claim 1, wherein the sheet of material is a singlesheet of transparent plastic material having an inner surface includingthe inner surfaces of the temple engaging areas, which is smooth andtends to stick to the skin of the wearer to support the temple engagingareas at the temples of the wearer.